Nuclear Subsidies
Ian Marchant: Negotiations between EdF, the state-owned French energy company, and the Government over the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset are at a crucial stage. The sticking point appears to be the “strike price” — what we will all end up paying for power from the new reactor. If it is set too high or the contract is too long, consumers will foot an unnecessarily expensive bill for decades to come. Onshore wind already costs less than this (about £90/MWh) and that industry is striving to get costs down even more. The technology we are buying, the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR), is a 1960s retread. We are buying French technology from a French provider and French developer. People say that nuclear will ease concerns over security of supply. But those concerns are about the next five years and no one expects a new nuclear station to be available before 2020. Finally, some might argue that, as an established technology, nuclear power is predictable and robust. But experience of the only two EPRs being built in Europe, at Flamanville, in France, and Olkiluoto, in Finland, suggests exactly the opposite. I struggle to see why we should all pay a premium over the other options. I see no reason why a combination of new gas, renewables and energy efficiency cannot bridge the energy gap for the next five to ten years while we let the nuclear industry get its costs down and improve its track record on delivery.
Times 19th March 2013 read more »
Hinkley
On Tuesday, the government is expected to approve planning permission for EDF Energy to build the first new nuclear power plant for a generation. Hinkley C would be one of the UK’s biggest infrastructure projects in years. The plan is to build two reactors, which together would generate 3.2GW of electricity. That’s 7% of the UK’s energy needs, and enough to power five million homes. Rupert Cox remembers as a boy seeing Hinkley B being built. Now, as chief executive of Somerset Chamber of Commerce, he is hopeful that the huge project will make a lasting difference.
BBC 18th March 2013 read more »
The Government is expected to signal the go-ahead for a £14billion new nuclear power station to be built at Hinkley Point in Somerset today. The Hinkley Point C plan has already got the go-ahead from the Environment Agency, and permits have been issued for the power station to be built, but the final hurdle lies with Energy Secretary Ed Davey.
Western Daily Press 19th March 2013 read more »
Huffington Post 19th March 2013 read more »
ITV 19th March 2013 read more »
Energy Live 18th March 2013 read more »
Bridgwater Mercury 19th March 2013 read more »
Plans for a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, will “lock a generation of consumers into higher energy bills”, Greenpeace said. Executive director John Sauven said: “It will distort energy policy by displacing newer, cleaner, cheaper technologies. He added, “With companies now saying the price of offshore wind will drop so much it will be on par with nuclear by 2020, there is no rationale for allowing Hinkley C to proceed. “Giving it the green light when there is no credible plan for dealing with the waste could also be in breach of the law.”
ITV 19th March 2013 read more »
Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven says the plan is bad news for consumers and will displace renewables. “Hinkley C fails every test – economic, consumer, environmental, and arguably legal. It will lock a generation of consumers into higher energy bills, via a strike price that’s expected to be double the current price of electricity, and it will distort energy policy by displacing newer, cleaner, cheaper technologies.”
Greenpeace 18th March 2013 read more »
Radioactive emissions from the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear plant have been underestimated, campaigners claim. The Stop Hinkley group said reactors will discharge more radioactive waste into the Severn Estuary. The group’s complaint relates to three permits issued by the Environment Agency for the running of the plant. But the agency said it had addressed concerns before issuing the permits. A decision on whether the plant will be built is expected on Tuesday. The permits cover the discharge and disposal of radioactive waste and cooling water.
BBC 18th March 2013 read more »
Energy Costs
The deputy chief executive at SSE has accused Ofgem of confusing energy customers with misleading information in its supply market indicators. Alistair Phillip-Davies has said that the weekly data published by the regulator has been “consistently higher than the actual profit margins” the energy suppliers make. He adds the information from Ofgem, which claims the suppliers will make approximately £110 per household for the 12 months from March 2013, is “very confusing for customers, who are being given conflicting messages”.
Utility Week 18th March 2013 read more »
SSE: Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan made a media splash last month when he warned that the UK’s electricity supply margins were becoming “uncomfortably tight”, were “on a rollercoaster” and were heading “downhill fast”. It’s not often that broadsheet – let alone tabloid – newspapers pay any attention to the UK’s energy supply mix, so I was intrigued by the level of attention Buchanan’s comments drew – particularly as he said very little that Ofgem hadn’t already said. Let’s start with shale gas. Even if we assume that it can be extracted economically in the UK, this process will take time from a standing start. Not only that, but it will also have no direct impact on the UK’s capacity for generating electricity – it would simply displace other sources. Similarly, deciding to build new nuclear power stations now will do nothing to avoid a capacity crunch in 2017, let alone before then. These are huge projects with long lead times, mammoth up-front construction costs and a recent track record littered with cost-overruns and failed projects.
Energy Desk 17th March 2013 read more »
Utility Week 18th March 2013 read more »
Energy Supplies
As the UK awaits a government decision on a new nuclear power plant in Somerset, Jon Snow asks Lord Browne, former BP boss, whether the country can embrace new energy forms – and when.
Channel 4 18th March 2013 read more »
Emergency Planning
A large-scale multinational response exercise has tested out the reactions of organisations and agencies in the Scandinavian-Baltic region to a hypothetical severe accident at Finland’s Loviisa nuclear power plant.
World Nuclear News 18th March 2013 read more »
Europe
The European Commission has outlined new targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and using more green energy by 2030, according to a policy paper seen by Reuters.The paper reflects industry demands that climate goals have to take account of the economic crisis but still presses for an economy that produces less carbon and is less dependent on expensive fossil fuel imports. The new paper puts forward the idea of a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions versus 1990 levels and a goal that renewables will supply 30 percent of all energy needs, both by 2030. It stops short of any number for a new energy saving target. That compares with three 2020 policy goals to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent, increase renewables to 20 percent and improve energy savings by 20 percent.
Reuters 12th March 2013 read more »
Cyber Attacks
State-sponsored cyber-attacks must avoid sensitive civilian targets such as hospitals, dams, dykes and nuclear power stations, according to an advisory manual on cyber-warfare written for Nato, which predicts that online attacks could in future trigger full-blown military conflicts.
Guardian 18th March 2013 read more »
Jordan
The reactor technology for Jordan’s first nuclear power plant is to be decided in mid-May. Meanwhile, the site selection process for the facility is expected to be completed this month. Khaled Toukan, chairman of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) told the country’s official news agency Petra that there is “strong competition” between the two preselected reactor vendors. In April 2012, JAEC announced that it had narrowed down the list of seven offers from four reactor vendors to two from AtomStroyExport of Russia and the Areva-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries joint venture, for their respective AES-92 model VVER-1000 and Atmea designs. Toukan said that the winning bid would be announced in mid-May.
World Nuclear News 18th March 2013 read more »
US
More than 200 jobs are to be axed at Washington state’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation under budget cuts, officials said on Monday, raising fears that the job losses could hamper a clean-up there after a spill from waste storage tanks reported last month.
Trust 19th March 2013 read more »
France
Catastrophic nuclear accidents, like Chernobyl in 1986 or Fukushima No. 1 in 2011, are very rare, we’re incessantly told, and their probability of occurring infinitesimal. But when they do occur, they get costly. So costly that the French government, when it came up with cost estimates, kept them secret.
Oil Price 14th March 2013 read more »
Japan
A power failure at Japan’s tsunami-damaged nuclear plant on Monday night has left three fuel storage pools without fresh cooling water for hours, the plant’s operator said. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the power failure at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant was brief at its command centre but continued for hours at three of the seven fuel storage pools and at several other facilities, including one that treats water contaminated with radioactivity.
Toronto Star 18th March 2013 read more »
CTV 18th March 2013 read more »
Independent 19th March 2013 read more »
ITV 19th March 2013 read more »
Telegraph 19th March 2013 read more »
Guardian 19th March 2013 read more »
FT 19th March 2013 read more »
BBC 19th March 2013 read more »
Japan considered developing its own nuclear weapons programme in the 1950s, according to newly declassified US documents, but apparently dropped the plan when the government realised it would meet strong opposition so soon after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Telegraph 18th March 2013 read more »
Korea
Japan has seized aluminium alloy rods which can be used to make nuclear centrifuges from a Singapore-flagged ship which was carrying cargo from North Korea, a government spokesman said Monday.
Economic Times 18th March 2013 read more »
Quebec
The Quebec government will go ahead with public consultations on whether uranium development should be allowed in the province, The Gazette has learned. A well-placed government source indicated Tuesday that Environment Minister Yves-François Blanchet would travel to Chibougamau later this month or in early April to consult with people in the region before making the announcement, which will also have the effect of a moratorium, halting prospecting and exploration projects now underway.
Montreal Gazette 12th March 2013 read more »
Germany
2012 German Nuclear & Gas-Fired Generation Falls Further While Renewables Grow.
Wind Works 17th March 2013 read more »
Nuclear Weapons
New scrap Trident website.
CND 18th March 2013 read more »
Labour says it may rethink its backing for like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system. The coalition is split on the issue, with the Conservatives backing a straight £20bn replacement of Trident. The Lib Dems favour a cheaper option, with a study on possible alternatives due to be published in the summer. Labour says it would consider different options for the future if they provided better value for money while retaining for the UK a “credible” deterrent.
BBC 18th March 2013 read more »
A US defence contractor in Hawaii has been arrested on charges of passing national military secrets, including classified information about nuclear weapons, to a Chinese woman with whom he was romantically involved, authorities have said.
Guardian 19th March 2013 read more »
Iran
Iranian and foreign nuclear experts gathered in Istanbul on Monday to discuss Tehran’s controversial atomic programme, a European Union spokeswoman said.
Middle East Online 18th March 2013 read more »
Renewables
Out of sight of the mass of people living in towns and cities, a quiet revolution is underway in the British countryside as more and more farmers are investing in renewable energy. According to the National Farmers Union, one in five of its members had produced clean electricity from solar or wind by the end of 2012. Between 2011 and 2012 there was a 28% increase in the number of biogas plants, capable of providing both renewable electricity and heat from farm waste. This is from a very low base. As yet, the scale of on-farm renewables in Britain is tiny compared with Europe’s leader, Germany. By the end of 2010, German farmers owned over 10% of the country’s renewable energy capacity, equivalent to over 5,700 MW. Compared with the UK’s 78 biogas anaerobic digesters, there were 6,000 digesters in Germany by 2010, with plans to double capacity by 2020. But the German example just shows the potential that could be realised here.
IGov 18th March 2013 read more »
The world’s largest concentrated solar power plant, Shams 1, launched on Sunday. Taking three years to build, the $600m plant is located in Abu Dhabi’s western region, in the heart of the UAE’s hydrocarbon industry. At full capacity, the 100 megawatt Masdar, Total and Abengoa joint-project will power thousands of homes in the United Arab Emirates and displace 175,000 tons of CO2 a year.
Guardian 18th March 2013 read more »
FT 18th March 2013 read more »
Energy Efficiency
A SCHEME to build more than 300 greener homes could support about 250 construction jobs. Scottish Government ministers have committed £13.5 million for the project which will build 335 “affordable homes” using modern, environmentally friendly methods to make them energy efficient. Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said families living in them should be able to save as much as £1,000 a year on fuel bills. The money, from the Greener Homes Innovation Scheme, has been awarded to councils, housing associations and other organisations for 14 projects across Scotland.
Scotsman 19th March 2013 read more »
Fracking
Friends of the Earth Scotland today welcomed the results of a new public opinion survey which shows that most people are positive about renewables energy like wind farms but that unconventional gas and fracking is even more unpopular than nuclear power.
Friends of the Earth Scotland 18th March 2013 read more »
Energy Live 18th March 2013 read more »
Communities near shale gas fracking sites should be given handouts to accept drilling in their area, a government minister has said. The suggestion is markedly similar to a proposal made by the fracking company Cuadrilla in a letter to the energy minister John Hayes, released to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act, for taxpayers’ money to be offered as a “quid pro quo” to help communities accept wells on their doorstep.
Guardian 18th March 2013 read more »
